Sport utility vehicles that burn a lot of gas may be very popular, but they contribute more to global warming than entire countries do. Sport utility vehicles aren’t the most environmentally friendly vehicles you can drive, but their impact on the environment may be greater than many people realize. In a recent report, the International Energy Agency found that the 330 million SUVs in use worldwide generate more carbon emissions on their own than all of the countries put together. The report stated that despite a significant increase in electric model sales, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from SUVs will still reach almost 1 billion tonnes globally in 2022.

SUVs were the second largest contributor to the increase in global carbon emissions from 2010 to 2018

In that period, SUVs doubled their global market share from 17% to 39% and their annual emissions rose to more than 700 megatonnes of CO2, more than the yearly total emissions of the UK and the Netherlands combined.

Global climate change is largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and the rise in popularity of gas-powered SUVs, which have significantly lower fuel efficiency than smaller, lighter cars, is undoubtedly a major barrier to achieving the carbon reduction targets outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The development of electric SUVs is a potential bright spot, but it is not without its own challenges.

But the new report wasn’t all bad news; there is reason for hope in the IEA’s conclusions, thanks to the growth of the electric SUV.

A rise in electric SUVs is obviously a good thing as far as lowering the number of gas-burning SUVs on the road, as the transition to electric vehicles like Tesla’s Model 3 and the Chevrolet Volt is a major component of addressing the climate crisis.

However, it’s not as simple as simply switching out one for the other because a rise in demand for electric vehicles in general will put pressure on the supply of rare Earth minerals like cobalt and lithium that are essential for electric car batteries and electronics.

Traffic on the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco 

A critical step toward achieving net zero emissions by the middle of the century, according to the report, is rapidly increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road in place of conventional vehicles. In addition, since SUVs require larger batteries to power them, a growing market for electric SUVs would put additional strain on the supply chains for batteries and raise demand for the vital minerals required to make batteries.

However, we must deal with the current crisis before moving on to the next one, and the more gas-powered SUVs we are able to remove from the road in the long run, the better off we will all be.

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